New hazard assessments published by the Atomic Weapons Establishment for the Aldermaston and Burghfield nuclear sites suggest that the impacts of a radiation emergency at either site would extend over smaller areas than currently defined in emergency plans, raising fears that emergency planning areas may be reduced in size.

The Environment Agency has met with the Atomic Weapons Establishment to discuss decommissioning of the Pangbourne Pipeline, formerly used for the disposal of radioactive effluent from the AWE Aldermaston site.

A new assessment of hazards posed by the site where Britain's nuclear warheads are assembled and dismantled has concluded that there are “no reasonably foreseeable scenarios” that would result in a radiation emergency at the site.

The factory which designs and manufactures the UK's nuclear weapons must stay on a list of nuclear sites which require an enhanced level of regulatory attention because of the risks it poses, according to the government's nuclear safety watchdog